Author: Martyn Zachary

Dark Void Zero

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

(Stop press! PC and mobile versions of Dark Void Zero will be made available in February!)

Dark Void Zero BoxWhen I first saw the Dark Zero Void “cover art” on the left, I thought it for fan art, I really did. After all, versioning (or “demaking”… Gang Garrison, anyone?) current-gen games has been very popular as of late. Even in seeing the above teaser trailer I went through several stages of minor befuddlement, though: In context of the very real PlayChoice-10, fact and fiction blend very conveniently.

The PlayChoice-10, brilliantly suitable for a Nintendo DS precursor, was a NES housed inside an arcade cabinet that often had an extra video screen reserved for instructions (not exactly “two interactive screens” like the video suggests 1)http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showpost.php?s=06a2783777cb157dbeb1b031b1faf86b&p=1009999&postcount=10, but fair enough!). It’s also perfectly natural that Dark Void Zero should be another Capcom project, “buried deep in its vault,” in the vein of Mega Man 9 and 10. In this sense, they are bringing their flavour of 8-bit degradation to its logical culmination.

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Kane & Lynch 2

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#@$%! Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days was announced a while ago, so here we go:

Kane & Lynch 2 Logo

Kane & Lynch 2™: Dog Days is inspired by documentary filmmakers and the user-generated era. Every aspect of the game has been designed to deliver a fresh perspective to the words ‘intensity’ and ‘realism’ in video games.

While Kane & Lynch may have become a suitable pariah for the gaming community (check this GameBomb review out) by exemplifying underhanded press tactics and poor decision-making – something that we also briefly discussed in an early story of ours, Kaned & Lynched – the game is not without merit, and I am one to think a sequel could redeem many of the failings of the first title. (more…)

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Your Attention, Please

Martyn Zachary 1 Comment

Half-Life 2 BreenboardSome video games we lambaste for holding our hands, others we chastise for letting us wander. For developers, then, balancing the flow of progression means… a walking of the tightrope. On this topic, then, I would like to share with you two interesting articles that I have recently read.

In “Guiding the Player’s Eye”, Matthew “Gangles” Gallant directs our attention to the complexities of orienting the player in a three-dimensional world by illustrating, via a generous amount of example screencaps, Valve’s use of various visual cues:

The best approach is to guide the player organically, catching their eye with elements that fit seamlessly into the game world. In this school of thought, Valve is peerless. 1)http://gangles.ca/2009/05/26/guiding-the-eye/

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